Angling for Bask

Posted in Uncategorized by pawliekokonuts on March 11, 2014

The point of spring training, or spring break, for that matter, is: hope springs eternal. (With spring break, the hope is that one’s sprong sproings eternal.) Hope springs eternal. That means whether you are a Cubs fan, Astros fan, Yankees, Red Sox, or — wait for it — Giants fan, you indulge in hope. You go for the lie. You fall for the bait, the lure. You believe in the shiny bauble that says, “We can win it all.” You’re angling for bask. The ironic thing is, to be honest, I sort of gave up that sort of childish hope years, decades, ago. Sure, sure, we could win it all. But did I really believe that in the spring, in March? Unlikely. And then, when IT happened, TWICE, it was still an infinitely sweet surprise. The double bask made me a believer in this sense: the God (or Goddess) of Surprise still has some tricks up his (her) toga. It could happen again. Despite all odds. It could. Hope springs temporal.

One of the things I dig about baseball is how each season is such a journey. Like some long novel unfolding before our eyes. Each game its own chapter. I’ve seen people who weren’t baseball fans who finally “got” it, and became devoted fans. Maybe being older gave them the perspective. I do think something that has been a big help for new fans are the new big screen TVs, with high def. The game looks better on TV than it ever has before. It’s still better in person, but the TV presentation has gained ground.

Pawlie– thanks for the thread. I think Snarkk is doing one tomorrow.
I’m not really a *hope* guy. If my team sucks I tend to go into the season knowing about where we’ll finish. I know, “buzzkill” huh?
I could see the Giants doing well this year. If everyone stays healthy, I think they’ll be right there all year.

If Crawford continues to wield a wet linguini bat, what about Adrianza taking his spot and starting at SS (his best position), and Craw goes on the DL, with Abreu taking his spot? That way, the decision on who leaves of the two (both are out of options) is deferred until further review. Too crazy?…

If you watch Ike Davis swing from the side, he’s about 800 moving parts and none of them are connected. He’s got one of the worst swings I have ever seen. He must have the worst hitting coach in history. When he runs into a ball it goes a long way. More often than not, he does not run into the ball. Usually, he’s in danger of running into himself–mid swing.

“Angling for Bask” is one of the top 10 headlines ever for a thread here at the Flap.
Loo–I love Barnett, he’s retiring after this season. I’m bummed. He’s 70 and he acts 20. But he butchered that Monta interview.

Heh heh my best work is on deadline, and we had some dead air here. Tnx for that! In my years as a copy editor at The Post-Standard I wrote heds. Macdog may write them now, as well as Unca and Chi. G’night, girls. (Which reminds me: we need Tedspe to chime in, yeah, yeah, as well as Twin, MrMrMrBillBillBill, Ferret, SanDawg, Sportsdude, Paulinasia, Eddddddacker, and a dozen or two more.)